Damas Mbogoro
Political and administrative leadership of the second term of the fourth phase regime has to walk the talk, so to speak. The launching of KILIMO KWANZA was a very bold and far sighted undertaking of the fourth phase government. The test of the seriousness on this issue for the fourth phase regime lies in its successful implementation. The KILIMO KWANZA program, on a priori grounds, is what is needed in this country in order to get agriculture moving. Just as we launched it with the seriousness it deserves now let us put it to implementation with the same level of seriousness.
With regard to the seriousness with agriculture let me take you back to the period of 1961 to 1966, i.e. immediately after independence. I was of secondary school age then. The Ministry of Agriculture of the time used to run a weekly program that educated and sensitized the small scale farmers on the importance of working hard on the farm and farming according to the instructions of agriculture experts. It used to be a very impressive program. The program’s title was “Shambani wiki hii!” This program was aired by none other than the Junior Minister for Agriculture, the late Hon. Edward Barongo.
I hope the radio branch (RTD then) of the current Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation does still have that program on their tapes. This program could serve as a starting point for the present Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives for preparing their own programs. The point is that top level government functionaries should try as hard as possible to reach as many small scale farmers as possible at least to convey government seriousness on agriculture. This approach worked very well then; I believe it can also work quite well this time around.
The small scale farmer of the time of immediately after independence was not like the small scale farmer of today. The small scale farmer then was highly organized in terms production and marketing of farm produce. They were organized around the cooperative movement. They had primary, secondary and tertiary level cooperatives that were administratively and financially very strong. They had their cooperative bank. As evidence that they had a strong cooperative movement we have a total standing structure that used to house the headquarters of their federation in Dar es Salaam on Lumumba Street that was constructed then through contributions of their members. Only a superb cooperative organizational structure could have produced such a living monument. It is not my intention to delve into the mishaps that befell such a superb organizational structure.
What appears on the ground however is the fact that the current small scale farmers are not as organized as the small scale farmers of that time. What small scale farmers of Tanzania need right now is to be better organized. Of course there are some pockets of small scale farmers around the country who are organized in some ways; but not to the extent of being able to make an impact on the economy the way their predecessors could. To be organized is a prerequisite for the small scale farmers to benefit from their farming occupation. It is a prerequisite because without being organized they will not be able to benefit from relatively cheap and readily available farm input and equipment. When small scale farmers are organized they are able to benefit from relatively cheap farm inputs and equipment because of economies of scale that are generated from joint procurement and transportation.
Also without being organized they will not be able to benefit from better prices for their farm produce because of lack of bargaining power. A small scale farmer acting alone cannot bargain effectively with the farm produce buyers who always like to buy at the cheapest price. Small scale farmers who are organized are able to defend better prices for their produce by a joint action of refusing to sell at lower prices.
The second term fourth phase administrative and political leadership should put more efforts into getting the small scale farmers better organized. In order to get the small scale farmers organized the first thing to do is to educate them on the benefits of being better organized – unity is strength. The next thing to do to the small scale farmers who are convinced on the merits of unity and decide to form their organization is to train from among the members, the people who will manage the organization. After that the political and administrative leadership should exercise oversight functions only i.e. eyes on hands off.
There are a few successful small scale farmers’ organizations in the country. The role of the administrative and political leadership should be to assist the small scale farmers who have not yet formed their organizations to learn from these successful cases. A small scale farmer can learn better from another successful small scale farmer. Members of Parliament who are part of the political leadership for example, can spread to the rest of the constituency the experiences of successful farmers’ organizations either from his constituency or from other constituencies.
The fourth phase leadership took over office with a high sounding promise of facilitating a prosperous life for all Tanzanians. And the majority of Tanzanians live in rural areas i.e. their main occupation is agriculture. Surely, the KILIMO KWANZA program is the correct program for achieving the grand promise of prosperous life for all Tanzanians. What, does the fourth phase leadership want to leave office without building the foundations of a prosperous life for all Tanzanians? How will history rate this leadership?
The current leadership can definitely lay the foundations for a prosperous life for all Tanzanians. To start with the leadership should always remember that building the foundations of a prosperous life for all Tanzanians means building the foundations of a strong economy. And our economy is weak because the agriculture sector is weak. So the leadership should spend more time and energy discussing and finding solutions to the problems facing agriculture. The leadership should focus on economic gains rather than political gains. For our Members of Parliament to be more focused on agriculture I suggest that they form a special committee on agriculture that will focus exclusively on agriculture. It is time to be more serious with agriculture.